SparkNotes: The Merchant of Venice: Analysis of Major Characters Analysis of Major Characters Themes, Motifs & Symbols Shylock Although critics tend to agree that Shylock is The Merchant of Venice’s most noteworthy figure, no consensus has been reached on whether to read him as a bloodthirsty bogeyman, a clownish Jewish stereotype, or a tragic figure whose sense of decency has been fractured by the persecution he endures. Certainly, Shylock is the play’s antagonist, and he is menacing enough to seriously imperil the happiness of Venice’s businessmen and young lovers alike. Shylock is also, however, a creation of circumstance; even in his single-minded pursuit of a pound of flesh, his frequent mentions of the cruelty he has endured at Christian hands make it hard for us to label him a natural born monster. In one of Shakespeare’s most famous monologues, for example, Shylock argues that Jews are humans and calls his quest for vengeance the product of lessons taught to him by the cruelty of Venetian citizens. On the other hand, Shylock’s coldly calculated attempt to revenge the wrongs done to him by murdering his persecutor, Antonio, prevents us from viewing him in a primarily positive light.

Shakespeare gives us unmistakably human moments, but he often steers us against Shylock as well, painting him as a miserly, cruel, and prosaic figure. Portia Quick-witted, wealthy, and beautiful, Portia embodies the virtues that are typical of Shakespeare’s heroines—it is no surprise that she emerges as the antidote to Shylock’s malice. At the beginning of the play, however, we do not see Portia’s potential for initiative and resourcefulness, as she is a near prisoner, feeling herself absolutely bound to follow her father’s dying wishes. This opening appearance, however, proves to be a revealing introduction to Portia, who emerges as that rarest of combinations—a free spirit who abides rigidly by rules. Rather than ignoring the stipulations of her father’s will, she watches a stream of suitors pass her by, happy to see these particular suitors go, but sad that she has no choice in the matter. When Bassanio arrives, however, Portia proves herself to be highly resourceful, begging the man she loves to stay a while before picking a chest, and finding loopholes in the will’s provision that we never thought possible.

Also, in her defeat of Shylock Portia prevails by applying a more rigid standard than Shylock himself, agreeing that his contract very much entitles him to his pound of flesh, but adding that it does not allow for any loss of blood. Anybody can break the rules, but Portia’s effectiveness comes from her ability to make the law work for her. Portia rejects the stuffiness that rigid adherence to the law might otherwise suggest. In her courtroom appearance, she vigorously applies the law, but still flouts convention by appearing disguised as a man. After depriving Bassanio of his ring, she stops the prank before it goes to far, but still takes it far enough to berate Bassanio and Gratiano for their callousness, and she even insinuates that she has been unfaithful. Antonio Although the play’s title refers to him, Antonio is a rather lackluster character. He emerges in Act I, scene i as a hopeless depressive, someone who cannot name the source of his melancholy and who, throughout the course of the play, devolves into a self-pitying lump, unable to muster the energy required to defend himself against execution.

Antonio never names the cause of his melancholy, but the evidence seems to point to his being in love, despite his denial of this idea in Act I, scene i. The most likely object of his affection is Bassanio, who takes full advantage of the merchant’s boundless feelings for him. Antonio has risked the entirety of his fortune on overseas trading ventures, yet he agrees to guarantee the potentially lethal loan Bassanio secures from Shylock. In the context of his unrequited and presumably unconsummated relationship with Bassanio, Antonio’s willingness to offer up a pound of his own flesh seems particularly important, signifying a union that grotesquely alludes to the rites of marriage, where two partners become “one flesh.” Further evidence of the nature of Antonio’s feelings for Bassanio appears later in the play, when Antonio’s proclamations resonate with the hyperbole and self-satisfaction of a doomed lover’s declaration: “Pray God Bassanio come / To see me pay his debt, and then I care not” (III.iii.35–36). Antonio ends the play as happily as he can, restored to wealth even if not delivered into love.

Without a mate, he is indeed the “tainted wether”—or castrated ram—of the flock, and he will likely return to his favorite pastime of moping about the streets of Venice (IV.i.113). After all, he has effectively disabled himself from pursuing his other hobby—abusing Shylock—by insisting that the Jew convert to Christianity. Although a sixteenth-century audience might have seen this demand as merciful, as Shylock is saving himself from eternal damnation by converting, we are less likely to be convinced. Not only does Antonio’s reputation as an anti-Semite precede him, but the only instance in the play when he breaks out of his doldrums is his “storm” against Shylock (I.iii.132). In this context, Antonio proves that the dominant threads of his character are melancholy and cruelty. More Help Introduction to Shakespeare's Shylock from The Merchant of Venice Shakespeare's Characters: Shylock (The Merchant of Venice) From The Works of William Shakespeare. Vol. 8. Ed. Evangeline Maria O'Connor. J.D. Morris and Co. Please see the bottom of the page for additional resources.

The central figure of [The Merchant of Venice], in the eyes of modern readers and spectators, is of course Shylock , though there can be no doubt that he appeared to Shakespeare's contemporaries a comic personage, and, since he makes his final exit before the last act, by no means the protagonist. In the humaner view of a later age, Shylock appears as a half-pathetic creation, a scapegoat, a victim; to the Elizabethan public, with his rapacity and his miserliness, his usury, and his eagerness to dig for another the pit into which he himself falls, he seemed, not terrible, but ludicrous. They did not even take him seriously enough to feel any real uneasiness as to Antonio's fate, since they all knew beforehand the issue of the adventure.

They laughed when he went to Bassanio's feast "in hate, to feed upon the prodigal Christian"; they laughed when, in the scene with Tubal, he suffered himself to be bandied about between exultation over Antonio's misfortunes and rage over the prodigality of his runaway daughter; and they found him odious when he exclaimed, "I would my daughter were dead at my foot and the jewels in her ear!" He was, simply as a Jew, a despised creature; he belonged to the race which had crucified God himself; and he was doubly despised as an extortionate usurer. For the rest, the English public � like the Norwegian public so lately as the first half of this century � had no acquaintance with Jews except in books and on the stage. From 1290 until the middle of the seventeenth century the Jews were entirely excluded from England, livery prejudice against them was free to flourish unchecked. Did Shakespeare in a certain measure share these religious prejudices, as he seems to have shared the patriotic prejudices against the Maid of Orleans, if, indeed, he is responsible for the part she plays in Henry VI? We may be sure that he was very slightly affected by them, if at all.

Had he made a more undisguised effort to place himself at Shylock's standpoint, the censorship, on the one hand, would have intervened, while, on the other hand, the public would have been bewildered and alienated. It is quite in the spirit of the age that Shylock should suffer the punishment which befalls him. To pay him out for his stiff-necked vengefulness, he is mulcted not only of the sum he lent Antonio, but of half his fortune, and is finally, like Marlowe's Jew of Malta, compelled to change his religion. The latter detail gives something of a shock to the modern reader.

But the respect for personal conviction, when it conflicted with orthodoxy, did not exist in Shakespeare's time....It is strange to reflect, too, that just at the time when, on the English stage, one Mediterranean Jew was poisoning his daughter, and another whetting his knife to cut his debtor's flesh, thousands of heroic and enthusiastic Hebrews in Spain and Portugal, who, after the expulsion of the 300,000 at the beginning of the century, had secretly remained faithful to Judaism, were suffering themselves to be tortured, flayed, and burnt alive by the Inquisition, rather than forswear the religion of their race. But what is most surprising, doubtless, is the instinct of genius with which Shakespeare has seized upon and reproduced racial characteristics, and emphasized what is peculiarly Jewish in Shylock's culture. While Marlowe, according to his custom, made his Barabas revel in mythological similes, Shakespeare indicates that Shylock's culture is founded entirely upon the Old Testament, and makes commerce his only point of contact with the civilisation of later times. All his parallels are drawn from the Patriarchs and the Prophets.

With what unction he speaks when he justifies himself by the example of Jacob! His own race is always "our sacred nation," and he feels that "the curse has never fallen upon it" until his daughter fled with his treasures. Jewish, too, is Shylock's respect for, and obstinate insistence on, the letter of the law, his reliance upon statutory rights, which are, indeed, the only rights society allows him, and the partly instinctive, partly defiant restriction of his moral ideas to the principle of retribution. He is no wild animal; he is no heathen who simply gives the rein to his natural instincts; his hatred is not ungoverned; he restrains it within its legal rights, like a tiger in its cage. He is entirely lacking, indeed, in the freedom and serenity, the easy-going, light-hearted carelessness which characterises a ruling caste in its virtues and its vices, in its charities as in its prodigalities; but he has not a single twinge of conscience about anything that he does; his actions are in perfect harmony with his ideals.

Sundered from the regions, the social forms, the language, in which his spirit is at home, he has yet retained his Oriental character. Passion is the kernel of his nature. It is his passion that has enriched him; he is passionate in action, in calculation, in sensation, in hatred, in revenge, in everything. His vengefulness is many times greater than his rapacity. Avaricious though he be, money is nothing to him in comparison with revenge. It is not until he is exasperated by his daughter's robbery and flight that he takes such hard measures against Antonio, and refuses to accept three times the amount of the loan. His conception of honour may be unchivalrous enough, but, such as it is, his honour is not to be bought for money. His hatred of Antonio is far more intense than his love for his jewels; and it is this passionate hatred, not avarice, that makes him the monster he becomes. From this Hebrew passionateness, which can be traced even in details of diction, arises, among other things, his loathing of sloth and idleness. To realise how essentially Jewish is this trait, we need only refer to the so-called Proverbs of Solomon.

Shylock dismisses Launcelot with the words, "Drones hive not with me." Oriental, rather than specially Jewish, are the images in which he gives his passion utterance, approaching, as they so often do, to the parable form. (See, for example, his appeal to Jacob's cunning, or the speech in vindication of his claim, which begins, "You have among you many a purchased slave.") Especially Jewish, on the other hand, is the way in which this ardent passion throughout employs its images and parables in the service of a curiously sober rationalism, so that a sharp and biting logic, which retorts every accusation with interest, is always the controlling force. This sober logic, moreover, never lacks dramatic impetus. Shylock's course of thought perpetually takes the form of question and answer, a subordinate but characteristic trait which appears in the style of the Old Testament, and reappears to this day in representations of primitive Jews. One can feel through his words that there is a chanting quality in his voice; his movements are rapid, his gestures large. Externally and internally, to the inmost fibre of his being, he is a type of his race in its degradation.

Shylock disappears with the end of the fourth act in order that no discord may mar the harmony of the concluding scenes. By means of his fifth act, Shakespeare dissipates any preponderance of pain and gloom in the general impression of the play. Brandes: William Shakespeare. The Merchant of Venice — The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse Synopsis for The Merchant of Venice -from The Pocket Companion to Shakespeare’s Plays by J.C. Trewin Bassanio, needing money to woo Portia, heiress of Belmont, asks his friend Antonio, a Venetian merchant, for 3,000 ducats. Having no money by him and with all his ships at sea, Antonio goes to a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, who hates him for his loathing of usury. Shylock proposes what he calls a “merry bond” by which, if the money is not repaid within three months, he may take a pound of Antonio’s flesh; foolishly Antonio agrees. Portia, at Belmont receives the Prince of Morocco, come to make his choice under the will of Portia’s father.

All suitors must choose from three caskets (gold, silver and lead) the one that contains her portrait; those who fail can never contemplate marriage again. Morocco fails with the golden casket, and the Prince of Arragon with the silver. Meanwhile, Bassanio and his friend Gratiano are on their way to Belmont; and Jessica, Shylock’s daughter, in the disguise of a boy, has eloped with Lorenzo, taking rings and ducats with her. Shylock is furious about his losses. But Bassanio, choosing the correct (leaden) casket, prepares to wed Portia; her gentlewoman Nerissa and Gratiano also plan to marry. Then Salerio, Lorenzo and Jessica bring news that Shylock is demanding his due and that Antonio’s ships have “all miscarried”. There must be a trial; Portia arranges to be present at the court as a young lawyer (Balthasar), Nerissa as “his” clerk. There, admitting that the bond is flawless, she begs mercy from Shylock, who refuses and rejects all offers of money. He is about to take his pound of flesh when Portia turns on him.

She warns him that according to the bond, he is not entitled to “one jot of blood”. Baffled, he will take his 3,000 ducats – only to be told that as an alien who has conspired against a Venetian’s life, his own life is forfeit. However he is pardoned and allowed half his fortune on the pledge that he will become a Christian and bequeath the money to Lorenzo and Jessica at his death. When he has left the court the play is practically over except for the tranquil coda (it is used often to be cut) in the moonlight at Belmont, some comedy with rings, and the tidings that Antonio’s ships are safely come to port. Director's Notes Show Information Duration Act One - 70 min / 15 min intermission / Act Two - 70 min (Ending time is approx. 10:15pm/9:15pm Sun) Show Roles What does rating this mean? These are plays you may have read in high school or college. The plot is fairly uncomplicated, though some of the themes may be dense or dark. These plays may include supernatural elements, straight-forward politics, historical content or religious content.

In these plays, there may also be bawdy language and certain adult situations. If we feel a show contains a plethora of Graphic Elizabethan Poetry (or is very bloody/violent/triggering) we will put that disclaimer in the blurb about the show. Note for all plays: The performers of The Atlanta Shakespeare Company are specially trained to make Shakespeare’s text and intention clear, no matter the plot or the subject matter. They know precisely how to get to the emotional core of each line, each moment, each scene. We promise you will understand everything! Leave the heavy lifting to us! Additional Information Three Interpretations of Shylock from The Merchant of Venice Three Interpretations of Shylock From Shakespeare's The merchant of Venice by Richard Jones and Franklin T. Baker. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Introduction "Look Here, upon This Picture, and on This" The cry of Hamlet to his mother in the closet-scene, "Look here, upon this picture, and on this," rises easily to the lips of one busied with the literature of comment on The Merchant of Venice.

For interpreters of the play differ greatly in their attitude toward Shylock - and their attitude toward Shylock influences greatly, as a matter of course, their attitude toward the other characters of the play.

Shylock is, indeed, according to the exposition of many learned judges, in reality the hero of the play - as he is, for example, to the editor of the great English Dictionary of National Biography, who has of late written, "For Shylock (not the merchant Antonio) is the hero of the play, and the main interest culminates in the Jew's trial and discomfiture." [1] While, on the contrary, Gervinus, in his Shakespeare Commentaries, has entered a vigorous protest against the 'lowness' and 'madness' that have gone so far as "to make on the stage a martyr and hero out of this outcast of humanity." So also to the most honored of Shakespearean scholars, of whose worth the wide world is not ignorant, Shylock is (up to a certain point) "simply a cruel and vindictive creditor." And this incomparable Shakespeare scholar is clearly convinced that "this is not a 'tendenz-drama,' wherein is infused a subtle plea of toleration for the Jews." [2] So opposite, then, are the points of view from which the characters of the play are at times presented, both in literary criticism and upon the stage

, that the reader - before making for himself a final choice, before declaring precipitately, "Deliver me the key: Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may!" - might well, quite in accord with the spirit of Portia's plea to Bassanio, lest he do choose wrong, suffer himself to be detained 'some month or two' in a survey of the field of criticism concerning this play, with an open mind looking meanwhile here upon this picture and on this, and looking ever, as a matter of course, upon the text as well from which these pictures are, more or less justifiably, drawn.

First Interpretation - Shylock a Wolfish, Bloody, Inexorable Dog Of the various interpretations of the character of Shylock one makes him throughout a mere bloodthirsty villain; a stony adversary, an inhuman wretch; a misbeliever, cut-throat dog; a dog Jew; the most impenetrable cur that ever kept with men. In the downfall of this 'damn'd, inexorable dog,' whose desires are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous, even though the downfall be brought about by means of a palpable legal quibble, they wholly rejoice, agreeing with Bassanio that to do this great right it is quite justifiable to do a little wrong, [3] if one may thereby curb this cruel devil of his will.

And untroubled by any recognition of some right in wrong, of humanity in inhumanity, on the part of Shylock, they give their sympathies unreservedly to his antagonists in the play; they are content with the good Antonio's 'expectoratory method' of manifesting his distaste for this particular member of the Hebrew race; they take unalloyed delight in Jessica's marriage out of her race and religion, offering excuses for "the dry eyes - nay, laughing lips - with which she departs"; they even pass lightly over her robbery of her father's jewels and the exchange of her dead mother's betrothal ring for a monkey, and, protesting that she is daughter neither to his manners nor his blood, with Gratiano they exclaim admiringly, "by my hood, a Gentile and no Jew." The readers who thus interpret the play pay little heed to the touches by which, to others, Shakespeare has humanized the character of Shylock and made his desire for revenge, if not admirable, yet, fierce as it is, comprehensible at least.

And, far from being offended by what some of the less rigorous souls of a debile age have dispraised as the contemptuously brutal treatment accorded to Shylock and his race by the good Antonio and his friends, they are like with Antonio to spit on him again and spurn him too, and with Gratiano to exclaim, "O, be thou damn'd, inexorable dog!" Second Interpretation - Shylock the Depositary of the Vengeance of a Race In striking contrast with this traditional interpretation is the more recent view of those who, passing lightly by or at least accounting for [4] the pitilessness of Shylock's desire for revenge, cannot pass lightly by the injustice, indeed what appears to them the inhumanity, of the treatment of Shylock and his race by the Jew-hating but otherwise noble-minded Antonio, who took every opportunity to void his rheum upon Shylock's beard, to spurn him and spit upon his Jewish gaberdine - as much for hate of Shylock's 'sacred nation' as for use of what was his own.

"Antonio," says Brandes, [5] for example, "has insulted and baited Shylock in the most brutal fashion on account of his faith and his blood." And Brandes adds further that with the treatment Shylock has suffered he could not but become what he is. "Is there any cause in nature," asks Hales, [6] "that makes these hard hearts?" And his reply in substance is that the Christian who looks frankly and faithfully at this work will not find matter for exultation but only for shame and sadness. Shylock has been made the hard, savage, relentless creature we see him by long and cruel oppression. He inherited a nature embittered by centuries of insult and outrage. 'Sufferance' had been and was the badge of all his tribe. The character and deeds of Shylock looked on thus acquire to these interpreters new significance. He is no longer to them a mere individual, possessed by a fierce hate sprung from bargains thwarted or from individual wrongs - friends cooled, enemies heated. Again and again he is reviled as a dog Jew.

He thus becomes the representative of a race - of a shamefully wronged race, as may perhaps appear to the interpreters under consideration. "In the Shylock of Shakespeare," Professor Lounsbury of Yale has said, [7] "is concentrated the wrath of a race turning upon its oppressors - a race conscious of the importance of the part it has played in the past, with its long line of law-givers and prophets to which all nations turn, equally conscious of the misery it has endured and is continuing to endure in the present. As it has been great in suffering, so will it be great in vengeance. Entreaties are useless; threats are mere empty breath.

Pity will not soften the heart nor obloquy cause it to yield." Professor Boas of Oxford has written of Shylock, "The magnificent outburst in which he vindicates against a brutal fanaticism the essential equality of human conditions in Jew and Christian is born of the blood and tears of centuries of martyrdom: it is the exceeding bitter cry, not so much of the solitary usurer as of the entire Hebrew race turning on its bed of pain." In the Jahrbuch of the Shakespeare Society of Germany, Herr Honigman has said, "Here it is that Shylock figures as the deputy and avenger of his whole shamefully maltreated race.

In his tones we hear the protest, crying to heaven, of human rights trodden under foot, against the love of humanity paraded by the hypocritical mouths of his oppressors; and if his towering revenge mounts to fanaticism, it is verily of a different stamp to the fanaticism of usury and greed which the critics are fain to find in his character." And a Frenchman, Francois Victor Hugo, a son of the author of Les miserables, has written in like manner of this scene, "This sublime imprecation is the most eloquent plea that the human voice has ever dared to utter for a despised race. Whatsoever be the denouement, it is hereby justified. Let Shylock be as implacable as he may, assuredly he will no more than equal his instruction.

Even granting that he obtains it, a pound of Antonio's flesh will never outweigh, in the scales of reprisal, the millions of corpses heaped in the Christian shambles by a butchery [8] of thirteen centuries." In a similar vein has expressed himself the celebrated song-writer and critic, Heine, whose literary work, begun in Germany, closed in France, and of whom we read in the Encyclopedia Britannica, "No German writer since Goethe and Schiller has excited so much interest throughout Europe." In regard to Shylock, Heine, himself of Hebrew descent, has written, "When thou comest to Venice and wanderest through the Doge's palace, ... far more than of all such historical persons, thou thinkest in Venice of Shakespeare's Shylock, ... "At least I, wandering hunter after dreams that I am, I looked round everywhere on the Rialto to see if I could not find Shylock.

I could have told him something that would have pleased him - namely, that his cousin, Herr von Shylock in Paris, had become the mightiest baron in Christendom, invested by her Catholic Majesty with that Order of Isabella which was founded to celebrate the expulsion of the Jews and Moors from Spain. But I found him nowhere on the Rialto, and I determined to seek my old acquaintance in the Synagogue. The Jews were just then celebrating their Day of Atonement, and they stood enveloped in their white talars, with uncanny motions of the head, looking almost like an assemblage of ghosts. There the poor Jews had stood, fasting and praying, from earliest morning; - since the evening before they had taken neither food nor drink, and had previously begged pardon of all their acquaintances for any wrong they might have done them in the course of the year, that God might thereby also forgive them their wrongs - a beautiful custom, which, curiously enough, is found among this people, strangers though they be to the teaching of Christ. "Although I looked all around the Synagogue, I nowhere discovered the face of Shylock.

And yet I felt he must be hidden under one of those white talars, praying more fervently than his fellow-believers, looking up with stormy, nay frantic wildness, to the throne of Jehovah, the hard God-King. I saw him not. But towards evening, when, according to the Jewish faith, the gates of Heaven are shut, and no prayer can then obtain admittance, I heard a voice, with a ripple of tears that were never wept by eyes. It was a sob that could only come from a breast that held in it all the martyrdom which, for eighteen centuries, had been borne by a whole tortured people. It was the death-rattle of a soul sinking down dead tired at heaven's gates. And I seemed to know the voice, and I felt that I had heard it long ago, when, in utter despair, it moaned out, then as now, 'Jessica, my girl!'" The interpretation put upon Shylock by the Jews of today is doubtless fairly stated by Rabbi Lewinthal, [9] "This is the wail of the Jew uttered for the centuries.

This is the cry that went up from Egypt, from the Roman amphitheatre, from the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition. We hear its echo all through the Dark Ages; and the genius of Shakespeare voiced it as it had never been voiced before - or since. ... Shylock is a man more sinned against than sinning, whom the inhumanity of the whole world has made inhuman. Long brooding over the shameful treatment of his people has marred his character and dried up the founts of tenderness in his bosom." Third Interpretation - Shylock Conceived of Essentially in the Anti-Jewish Spirit of Marlowe's Jew of Malta, but Humanized.

Occupying middle ground between these two extremes is the interpretation which regards Shylock as essentially the conventional avaricious, bloodthirsty Jew, a neighbour and near bred to Marlowe's monster, the Jew of Malta, but humanized by what Boas has called Shakespeare's 'almost superhuman, plastic power' - humanized sufficiently to win for him, in certain scenes especially, a measure - a large measure it may be - of the reader's sympathy, but not enough to justify the interpretation given above, which makes Shylock and not Antonio the hero of the play. This interpretation, as given in Ward's History of English Dramatic Literature, [10] is as follows, "... that the two plays [The Merchant of Venice and The Jew of Malta] are, so far as their main subject is concerned, essentially written in the same spirit, I cannot hesitate in affirming. It is, I am convinced, only modern readers and modern actors who suppose that Shakespeare consciously intended to arouse the sympathy of his audience in behalf of the Jew. The sympathy which, notwithstanding, is aroused, is in truth merely the adventitious result of the unconscious tact with which the poet humanized the character.

In both Shakespeare's and Marlowe's plays the view inculcated is, that on the part of a Jew fraud is the sign of his tribe, whereas on the part of Christians counter-fraud, though accompanied by violence, is worthy of commendation. This I cannot but regard as the primary effect of the whole of either play. ... "The artistic difference between the plays needs no comment. The psychological distinction in the conception of the two principal characters lies, not in the nature of the elements out of which they are compounded - avarice, cruelty, revengefulness, with no softening element but that of paternal love, and this only till it is quenched in the sense of a daughter's desertion - but in the way in which these elements are combined. The art of Shakespeare is immeasurably superior to that of Marlowe in not allowing either avarice or lust of vengeance to attain to such a pitch in his Jew as to take the character out of the range of human nature. In contrast with the unrelieved blackness of Barabas, the character of Shylock remains both truly human and within the limits of dramatic probability." NOTES [Note numbers have been altered.] 1.

A Life of William Shakespeare, Sidney Lee, The Macmillan Company of New York, 1899, p. 68. 2. The [Variorum] Merchant of Venice, Horace Howard Furness, J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, p. 223. 3. "As long as Shylock was held to be a wolfish, bloody, inexorable dog, it made but little difference how he was defeated or his victim saved; a Jew had no rights which a Christian was bound to respect. Even charming, gentle Mrs. Inchbald believed that Shakespeare's purpose in writing the play was to 'hold up the Jew to detestation,' and such undoubtedly was the general impression created by the 'snarling malignity' of Macklin's Shylock [1741]." - Furness, p. 403. Mrs.

Inchbald's opinions in regard to dramatic literature were evidently esteemed by her contemporaries, as she edited with biographical and critical remarks three collections of plays, aggregating forty-two volumes, in addition to writing nineteen dramas of her own, some of which were for a time, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'very successful.' 4. [In Shylock] "we see the remains of a great and noble nature, out of which all the genial sap of humanity has been pressed by accumulated injuries." - Shakespeare: His Life, Art, and Characters, H. N. Hudson, Ginn and Company, Boston, p. 291. "Chronologically, the earliest voice, as far as I know, which was raised in defence of Shylock and in denunciation of the illegality of his defeat is that of an Anonymous Contributor to a volume Essays by a Society of Gentlemen at Exeter, printed in 1792. The Essay is called 'An Apology for the Character and Conduct of Shylock,' and is signed 'T.

O.' The Essayist's plea for Shylock is, that if his character is cruel it was made so by ill-treatment; that the derision with which his daughter's flight was treated was calculated to embitter the sweetest nature, let alone that of an outcast of society: that his Mosaic law authorized him to exact 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'; that money-making was the sole occupation that the laws suffered him to follow," etc. - Furness, p. 403. Professor Lounsbury refers in his Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, p. 214, to the contention, in 1777, of "a member of the University of Oxford" that The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure are really tragedies. It would appear, then, that, as early as 1777, to this member of the University of Oxford the treatment of Shylock in the trial-scene was not altogether satisfactory. 5. . William Shakespeare, George Brandes, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1899. 6. J. W. Hales, The Athenmum, 15 December, 1877.

7. Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, Thomas R. Lounsbury, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1901, p. 338. The reader will not, as a matter of course, assume that the whole point of view of any commentator is given in a single quotation. Professor Lounsbury's chief care here is not to justify Shylock, but to come fairly off in his purpose of illustrating the 'art' with which Shakespeare makes us reconciled to the conclusion of the trial scene - the greater the difficulty, the greater the art. In this case the task set before the poet was one of peculiar difficulty' ... "For in spite of the evil repute in which the Jewish race had been held for centuries, Shakespeare could not but have felt that in following the story out to its conclusion - a conclusion which was probably as well known to the audience as to himself - he could hardly fail to outrage to a certain extent our latent natural sense of justice by a result which purports to be in strictest accordance with justice.

Whatever may have been the guilt and bloodthirstiness of Shylock, one cannot get entirely over the impression that he is a hardly used man." The more noteworthy then is the art of the poet, who - though he shows us Shylock 'exalted by wrath,' 'the wrath of a race turning upon its oppressors,' and by "that sublimity of hate which awes us by its intensity, and gives to malignity a character almost of grandeur" - yet "reconciles us [and O the wonder of it, the art of it - it was a task of 'peculiar difficulty,' requiring 'extraordinary skill' - yet the poet shows us that 'which alone' reconciles us] to the result of the trial, which in one sense is an utter travesty of justice." 8. "It was not very long since Jews had been forced to choose between kissing the crucifix and mounting the faggots; and in Strasburg, in 1439, nine hundred of them had in one day chosen the latter alternative.

It is strange to reflect, too, that just at the time when, on the English stage, one Mediterranean Jew was poisoning his daughter, and another whetting his knife to cut his debtor's flesh, thousands of heroic and enthusiastic Hebrews in Spain and Portugal, who, after the expulsion of the three hundred thousand at the beginning of the century, had secretly remained faithful to Judaism, were suffering themselves to be tortured, flayed, burnt alive by the Inquisition, rather than forswear the religion of their race." - Brandes, p. 165. 9. Isidore Lewinthal, Rabbi Congregation Ohavai Sholom, Nashville, Tenn. 10. The Macmillan Company, New York. How to cite this article: Jones, Richard and Franklin T. Baker. Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1903. Shakespeare Online. 20 Feb. 2011. (date when you accessed the information) < >. ______ SparkNotes: The Merchant of Venice: Character List The Merchant of Venice Plot Overview Analysis of Major Characters Shylock - A Jewish moneylender in Venice.

Angered by his mistreatment at the hands of Venice’s Christians, particularly Antonio, Shylock schemes to eke out his revenge by ruthlessly demanding as payment a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Although seen by the rest of the play’s characters as an inhuman monster, Shylock at times diverges from stereotype and reveals himself to be quite human. These contradictions, and his eloquent expressions of hatred, have earned Shylock a place as one of Shakespeare’s most memorable characters. Read an in-depth analysis of Shylock. Portia - A wealthy heiress from Belmont. Portia’s beauty is matched only by her intelligence. Bound by a clause in her father’s will that forces her to marry whichever suitor chooses correctly among three caskets, Portia is nonetheless able to marry her true love, Bassanio. Far and away the most clever of the play’s characters, it is Portia, in the disguise of a young law clerk, who saves Antonio from Shylock’s knife. Read an in-depth analysis of Portia. Antonio - The merchant whose love for his friend Bassanio prompts him to sign Shylock’s contract and almost lose his life.

Antonio is something of a mercurial figure, often inexplicably melancholy and, as Shylock points out, possessed of an incorrigible dislike of Jews. Nonetheless, Antonio is beloved of his friends and proves merciful to Shylock, albeit with conditions. Read an in-depth analysis of Antonio. Bassanio - A gentleman of Venice, and a kinsman and dear friend to Antonio. Bassanio’s love for the wealthy Portia leads him to borrow money from Shylock with Antonio as his guarantor. An ineffectual businessman, Bassanio proves himself a worthy suitor, correctly identifying the casket that contains Portia’s portrait. Gratiano - A friend of Bassanio’s who accompanies him to Belmont. A coarse and garrulous young man, Gratiano is Shylock’s most vocal and insulting critic during the trial. While Bassanio courts Portia, Gratiano falls in love with and eventually weds Portia’s lady-in-waiting, Nerissa. Jessica - Although she is Shylock’s daughter, Jessica hates life in her father’s house, and elopes with the young Christian gentleman, Lorenzo.

The fate of her soul is often in doubt: the play’s characters wonder if her marriage can overcome the fact that she was born a Jew, and we wonder if her sale of a ring given to her father by her mother is excessively callous. Lorenzo - A friend of Bassanio and Antonio, Lorenzo is in love with Shylock’s daughter, Jessica. He schemes to help Jessica escape from her father’s house, and he eventually elopes with her to Belmont. Nerissa - Portia’s lady-in-waiting and confidante. She marries Gratiano and escorts Portia on Portia’s trip to Venice by disguising herself as her law clerk. Launcelot Gobbo - Bassanio’s servant. A comical, clownish figure who is especially adept at making puns, Launcelot leaves Shylock’s service in order to work for Bassanio. The prince of Morocco - A Moorish prince who seeks Portia’s hand in marriage. The prince of Morocco asks Portia to ignore his dark countenance and seeks to win her by picking one of the three caskets.

Certain that the caskets reflect Portia’s beauty and stature, the prince of Morocco picks the gold chest, which proves to be incorrect. The prince of Arragon - An arrogant Spanish nobleman who also attempts to win Portia’s hand by picking a casket. Like the prince of Morocco, however, the prince of Arragon chooses unwisely. He picks the silver casket, which gives him a message calling him an idiot instead of Portia’s hand. Salarino - A Venetian gentleman, and friend to Antonio, Bassanio, and Lorenzo. Salarino escorts the newlyweds Jessica and Lorenzo to Belmont, and returns with Bassanio and Gratiano for Antonio’s trial. He is often almost indistinguishable from his companion Solanio. Solanio - A Venetian gentleman, and frequent counterpart to Salarino. The duke of Venice - The ruler of Venice, who presides over Antonio’s trial. Although a powerful man, the duke’s state is built on respect for the law, and he is unable to help Antonio. Old Gobbo - Launcelot’s father, also a servant in Venice. Tubal - A Jew in Venice, and one of Shylock’s friends.

Doctor Bellario - A wealthy Paduan lawyer and Portia’s cousin. Doctor Bellario never appears in the play, but he gives Portia’s servant the letters of introduction needed for her to make her appearance in court. Balthasar - Portia’s servant, whom she dispatches to get the appropriate materials from Doctor Bellario. More Help No Fear Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice: Characters The Merchant of Venice Act 1, Scene 1 Shylock A Jewish moneylender in Venice. Angered by his mistreatment at the hands of Venice’s Christians, particularly the merchant Antonio, Shylock schemes to get revenge by ruthlessly demanding a pound of Antonio’s flesh as penalty for Antonio’s defaulting on a loan. The Christian characters in the play regard Shylock as an inhuman monster, frequently mocking him for being obsessed with money. In person, however, Shylock comes across as far more than a caricature or stereotype. His resentment at his mistreatment, his anger at his daughter’s betrayal, and his eloquent expressions of rage make him a convincing, entirely human character. Portia A wealthy heiress from Belmont. Portia’s beauty is matched only by her intelligence.

Bound by a clause in her father’s will that forces her to marry whichever suitor chooses correctly among three caskets, Portia nonetheless longs to marry her true love, Bassanio. Far and away the cleverest of the play’s characters, Portia disguises herself as a young male law clerk in an attempt to save Antonio from Shylock’s knife. Antonio The merchant whose love for his friend Bassanio prompts him to sign Shylock’s contract and almost lose his life. Antonio is something of a mercurial figure, often inexplicably melancholy and, as Shylock points out, possessed of an incorrigible dislike of Jews. Nonetheless, Antonio is beloved of his friends and proves merciful to Shylock, albeit with conditions. Bassanio A gentleman of Venice and a kinsman and dear friend to Antonio. Bassanio’s love for the wealthy Portia leads him to borrow money from Shylock with Antonio as his guarantor. An ineffectual businessman, Bassanio nonetheless proves himself a worthy suitor, correctly identifying the casket that contains Portia’s portrait. Gratiano A friend of Bassanio’s who accompanies him to Belmont.

A coarse and garrulous young man, Gratiano is Shylock’s most vocal and insulting critic during the trial. While Bassanio courts Portia, Gratiano falls in love with and eventually weds Portia’s lady-in-waiting, Nerissa. Jessica Although she is Shylock’s daughter, Jessica hates life in her father’s house and elopes with the young Christian gentleman Lorenzo. Launcelot jokingly calls into question what will happen to her soul, wondering if her marriage to a Christian can overcome the fact that she was born a Jew. We may wonder if her sale of a ring given to her father by her mother isn’t excessively callous. Lorenzo A friend of Bassanio and Antonio. Lorenzo is in love with Shylock’s daughter, Jessica. He schemes to help Jessica escape from her father’s house and eventually elopes with her to Belmont. Nerissa Portia’s lady-in-waiting and confidante. Nerissa marries Gratiano and escorts Portia on Portia’s trip to Venice by disguising herself as Portia’s law clerk. Launcelot Gobbo Bassanio’s servant.

A comical, clownish figure who is especially adept at making puns, Launcelot leaves Shylock’s service in order to work for Bassanio. The prince of Morocco A Moorish prince who seeks Portia’s hand in marriage. The prince of Morocco asks Portia to ignore his dark complexion and seeks to win her by picking one of the three caskets. Certain that the caskets reflect Portia’s beauty and stature, the prince of Morocco picks the gold chest. The prince of Arragon An arrogant Spanish nobleman who also attempts to win Portia’s hand by picking a casket. Like the prince of Morocco, however, the prince of Arragon chooses unwisely. He picks the silver casket, which gives him a message calling him an idiot rather than offering him Portia’s hand. Salarino A Venetian gentleman, and friend to Antonio, Bassanio, and Lorenzo. Salarino is often almost indistinguishable from his companion Solanio. Solanio A Venetian gentleman, and frequent counterpart to Salerio. Salerio A Venetian gentleman and messanger. Salerio returns with Bassanio and Gratiano for Antonio’s trial.

The Duke of Venice The ruler of Venice, who presides over Antonio’s trial. Although he is a powerful man, the state he rules depends on respect for the law, and he is unable to bend the law to help Antonio. Gobbo Launcelot’s father, also a servant in Venice. Tubal A wealthy Jew in Venice and one of Shylock’s friends. Doctor Bellario A wealthy Paduan lawyer and Portia’s cousin. Although Doctor Bellario never appears in the play, he gives Portia’s servant the letters of introduction needed for Portia to make her appearance in court. Balthazar Portia’s servant, whom she dispatches to get the appropriate materials from Doctor Bellario. Stephano A messenger who works for Portia. Leonardo Bassanio Bassanio Bassanio is a young gentleman of Venice who has squandered all his fortune and is therefore in dire need of a rich wife. A great friend of Antonio’s, he convinces the latter to lend him the necessary money for him to properly woo Portia. He invites Shylock to dine with them over the matter of a loan for this, allowing Lorenzo to abduct Jessica.

He agrees to let his friend Gratiano follow him to Belmont on condition that he keep himself under control. He is greatly liked by Portia and Nerissa, as well as Portia’s servants, but he insists on attempting the test of the caskets without waiting, despite Portia’s entreaties. Winning by choosing humbly, he is overjoyed to have gained the lady, though his joy is soon tempered by hearing of Antonio’s troubles, and he rushes from Portia to see what he can do to save him. He does not recognize his wife when she is dressed as a man, and refuses to give her (as lawyer) the ring he received from her (as herself) and had sworn to never part from until Antonio asks him to, at which point he immediately does. He half-hopes to hide the fact, but is unsuccessful. He is desperate to excuse himself, and greatly relieved when it turns out that the learned lawyer was actually his wife in disguise. Whether his greater love is to Antonio or Portia remains uncertain, however.

Characters: The Merchant of Venice — Utah Shakespeare Festival The Prince of Morocco: One of Portia’s unsuccessful suitors The Prince of Arragon: Another unsuccessful suitor Antonio: A wealthy Venetian merchant, Antonio is a close friend of Bassanio. Bassanio: Frivolous with his money and in love with Portia, Bassanio solicits a loan from his friend Antonio in order to win Portia’s hand. Solanio: A friend of Antonio and Bassanio Gratiano: Bassanio’s light-hearted and talkative friend who falls in love with Portia’s gentlewoman, Nerissa. Salerio: Another friend of Antonio and Bassanio Lorenzo: A friend of Antonio and Bassanio, Lorenzo elopes with Shylock’s daughter, Jessica. Shylock: An intelligent but embittered Jewish moneylender, Shylock lends money to the hated Christian Antonio, with a “pound of flesh” as his bond. He is the father of Jessica.

Tubal: A friend of Shylock Launcelot Gobbo: A “clown” and servant of Shylock who thinks Shylock is the devil, Launcelot Gobbo eventually leaves to become Bassanio’s jester. Old Gobbo: The father of Launcelot, Old Gobbo has come to Venice to seek news of his son. Leonardo: A servant of Bassanio Balthazar: A servant of Portia Stephano: A servant of Portia Portia: Famous for her beauty and wealth, Portia will marry the man who can successfully solve the riddle her deceased father has decreed for her. She marries Bassanio and goes to court to save Antonio. Nerissa: Portia’s merry gentlewoman who marries Gratiano Jessica: The young daughter of Shylock, Jessica falls in love and elopes with the Christian, Lorenzo. ×

Question: Bassanio, Portia, and Shylock are characters in which Shakespeare play?
Answer: The Merchant of Venice